Students’ Understanding of Institutional Practices: The Missing Dimension in Human Rights Education

Abstract

This study used task-based group interviews with young adolescents in four countries to investigate their understanding of the causes of human rights violations, means for protecting human rights, and their own potential role in ensuring human rights. Although students recognized the role of personal and institutional factors in both violating and protecting human rights, their ideas for influencing human rights focused primarily on the personal contexts with which they were most familiar. Their understanding of political and economic mechanisms was much less elaborate. These findings suggest the need for curricula that equip students with the complex and specialized knowledge that would enable them to engage in a range of meaningful civic action, both in their lives now and as adults.

Students’ Perceptions of Their Rights in School: A Systematic Review of the International Literature

“…Knowledge about human rights is essential to the development of rights consciousness (e.g., Hirsh & Lyons, 2010;Merry, 2003). Such knowledge may be acquired through human rights education programs (Bajaj et al, 2017;Barton, 2015Barton, , 2020Hantzopoulos, 2015), but it can also be acquired through other channels, such as personal network ties with lawyers (Cornwell et al, 2017), and workplace training (Munkres, 2008). McCann (2006) noted in this regard that human rights knowledge is not just an instrumental "toolkit," as it empowers people to think about the world differently, envision new options, and choose between them.…”

Human rights teaching: snapshots from four countries

“…Meyer, Bromley, & Ramirez, 2010;Osler, 2015;Skinner & Bromley, 2019). Other scholars have explored students' understanding of human rights and human rights-related topics using quantitative (Hahn, 2005;Torney-Purta, Wilkenfeld & Barber, 2008) and qualitative (Barton, 2020) methods.…”

“…The latter inclination makes clear the need for human rights education (HRE) now more than ever. As scholars Osler (2016) and Barton (2020) emphasize, HRE, unlike nationalistic approaches to civic education, promotes a broadly humanistic regard for all people, whereby individuals think and act in solidarity with all members of the human community. Additionally, HRE can expose young people to universal standards and means for protecting and ensuring rights for all.…”

Reflections on human rights education from the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) sector in Mozambique

“…Initial protests against mainstreaming and lack of local voices were often drowned by the evangelist zeal of local NGOs depending on donor funding and diplomatic relationships with government agencies. However, meaningful civic action is vested in complex power relations of multiple actors with educational initiatives and pedagogy feeding into ethical, moral and critical dialogues that may or may not lead to effective human right activism (Barton, 2020;Snauwaert, 2019) or even local-oriented empathy (Zembylas, 2018). Human rights "talk" as an issue where NGOs may be well-positioned for mobilising communities to safeguard the rights of the most marginalised populations and assist in bringing critical and affective engagement with real issues.…”